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50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG

GENERATION 1 - 1964

GENERATION 4 - 1994GENERATION 2 - 1974

GENERATION 5 - 2005GENERATION 3 - 1979

50th ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION MUSTANG • WIMBLEDON WHITE

The Courier

THE COURIERWEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 20142

50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | LOCAL

Not Just Another ClubL ocal Mustang Club aims to enjoy their favorite

cars as well as help out in the community.

By JEANNIEWILEY WOLF

Staff WriterA love of the Ford Mustang

and a desire to help the com-munity has helped the Fort Findlay Mustang Club grow to some 80 members in just a few years’ time.

“It started with just 15 to 20 of us, all on Facebook,” said club President Bryan Mersch. “This year’s been our biggest year. It’s actually starting to take off, and we’re getting new members and we’ve grown to about 80.”

“It’s really exciting,” he said.

Members range in age from 19 to their 70s, mostly from Hancock County but also drawing from Perrysburg, Toledo, Lima and Tiffin.

Mersch noted there are no dues, but ownership of a Mustang is required to be part of the club. Members have cars dating from 1965 to 2014.

“Some guys are into Chevys, they’re into Corvettes, and that’s their prerogative. We like Mustangs,” Mersch said. “But we’re all car guys. We like to see all different kinds of cars, years, makes and models. But we really enjoy Mustangs. That’s what we all have in common.”

The 35-year-old Findlay man said his parents owned Mustangs when he was young and he got the privilege of

driving them to special occa-sions during high school like proms and homecomings.

But he didn’t think much more about it until 2011 when he and his wife were married in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

“It just happened to be Mustang Week the week we were there,” he said. “We’re like, why are all these Mustangs here? So I left Myrtle Beach and went home and started researching Mustangs right then to try and find the one that I want-ed.”

He now owns a 2009 GT glasstop.

“It’s pretty rare. The whole roof’s glass. I looked for a really long time to find that specific one,” he said. “I’ll keep that forever and my kids will have it.”

That interest led him, via Facebook, to others with a special fondness for the Mustang, which celebrates its 50th year in 2014.

“The history and tradition of Mustangs is unreal,” he said. “Dating back from 1964, all the way through 2015, there were different body styles, different motors, dif-ferent trims they put on the car.”

The club formed in September 2012 and was incorporated in April of this year. It now has its own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/fortfind-

lay.mustangclub. Reineke Ford lets the club use its meeting room for gatherings at 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month.

Helping Mersch run the club is Vice President Matt Gallant, Treasurer Brian Uther and Secretary Melisa Ridinger. Other officers are Charlie Ridinger and Tommy Giesey.

In addition to sharing an interest in Mustangs, mem-bers also want to help local charities, Mersch said.

“At the end of every car show season, which will be October, November, we will sit down as a club and vote on where we want our money to go to. And it won’t be just one specific charity. We’ll spread it out to different areas,” he explained.

Money collected last year was donated to Hope House.

“We hope to make $5,000 profit this year. We’d like to spread it out to more local charities,” Mersch said.

Members also support local car shows like Car Tunes on Main and those at Owens Community College and at the Flag City BalloonFest.

“We’re pretty good friends with the Toledo Mustang Club, so they have a big show every year in September and we go to that one,” Mersch said.

The club held its first open car show Aug. 23 in Arcadia.

Mersch said being part of the club has been a good experience.

“Our club’s like a brother-

hood and a sisterhood,” he said. “If somebody needs something, we all can get together and work it out.”

He said significant others are also kept updated on the club’s activities on Facebook.

“They can see where we’re going to be at, what we’re doing, just so they’re in the loop. It’s not just a guys’ club, it’s a family club,” Mersch said. “That’s what we’d like to keep it as.”

“We’re not just a bunch of rough riders,” he added. “We’re a club that wants to help out the community and raise money for charity.”

Wolf: [email protected]

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THE COURIERWEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 3

50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | HISTORY

An American IconF ew cars in history have generated as much excitement,

enthusiasm and interest as this one: the Ford Mustang.Now, as this legendary

pony car reaches its 50th anniversary, the full scope of its influence on America’s automotive landscape is being felt and celebrated from coast to coast.

Many events are planned for 2014 by Mustang owners, enthusiasts, dealers and the Ford Motor Company itself, marking 50 years since the Mustang was first launched in 1964.

Why all the excitement? Because the Mustang has been

a thrilling car for generations.

STARTING A REVOLUTIONExotic cars have always

been around. From the earliest days of the automobile, big engines, gorgeous styling and sporty performance were available to anyone with a big enough checkbook.

But the Mustang has never been an exotic car.

What was special about the Mustang in the beginning —

and what continues to make it stand out today — is that it offers a level of style and performance that millions of people can actually afford.

It offers the thrill of a muscular sports car without the high price that sports cars once commanded, a revolutionary concept when the ‘Stang was first introduced in the 1960s.

It brought sports-car fun to the masses, whether through the affordable V6-powered base models or the rarer,

V8-powered Shelby Mustang supercars that feel at home on the racetrack.

It redefined what automotive fun meant in America.

A CONTINUING LEGACY

The Mustang is remarkable not just because it was a sales success. Millions of people have bought and loved their Mustangs through the years.

But it’s also an amazing car because it influenced the

whole automotive world in a big way.

Countless cars, not only in America but also around the world, owe their success to the pioneering work of the Mustang’s engineers. They found a formula that made drivers fall in love with their affordable cars, helping to spawn the muscle-car revolution in the late 1960s and embracing ideas that continue to echo through sporty car designs today.

THE COURIER WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 20144

50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | LOCAL

The Limited EditionFord pays homage to five decades of the world’s favorite

pony car with Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition• The 50 Year Limited

Edition builds on the all-new 2015 Ford Mustang GT fast-back and will be available in either Wimbledon White or Kona Blue.

• Special-edition Mustang comes standard with nearly every available option; the only choice customers have to make is color, and manual or automatic transmission.

• 2015 Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition will be avail-able in fall 2014; only 1,964 examples will ever be built.

Fifty years after debuting one of the world’s most popu-lar cars, Ford is marking the milestone by revealing a Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition.

Created to honor five decades of Mustang heritage, only 1,964 examples of the 50 Year Limited Edition will ever be built when it goes on sale this fall.

“When Mustang was approved for development more than 50 years ago, I don’t think anyone imagined it would spawn such a dedi-cated base of fans around the world and still be in produc-tion today,” said Tom Reineke.

Based on the all-new 2015 Mustang GT fastback with performance pack, the 50 Year Limited Edition is designed to provide custom-ers with outstanding perfor-mance and a unique appear-ance that will be instantly recognizable on the road.

The only options for the 50 Year Limited Edition are the choice of two exclusive col-ors, and a six-speed manual or automatic transmission.

50 years of inspiration“The new Mustang blends

a muscular, contemporary shape with design cues that define it as quintessentially Mustang,” added Tom Reineke. “The 50 Year Limited Edition adds details that set it apart from other Mustangs, while hearkening back to the 1965 original.”

The only two available col-ors are Wimbledon White, like Mustang serial No. 0001 that was first sold to Capt. Stanley Tucker in April 1964, or Kona Blue. Both are exclu-sive to this limited-edition car.

“Chrome trim was much more prevalent on cars in the 1960s than it is today, so we added some discreet high-lights for the grille, side glass and tri-bar taillamps,” said Reineke. “The darker Kona Blue provides a particularly striking contrast against the chrome.”

Chrome besels surround-ing the base of each of the three taillamp blades take inspiration from the original 1962 design proposal by Gale Halderman that became the basis for the production model that debuted in 1964. The three individual lamps on each side of that design were combined into a single tri-bar lamp cluster for pro-duction, but the original con-cept has returned five decades on.

The Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition will be the only 2015 model with the large faux gas cap badge on the rear fascia, with 50 Years added to the GT designation.

Another visual element

that won’t be found on any other Mustang is the lou-vered rear quarter-windows. Unlike the external louvers on the quarter-windows of the 1965 fastback, the new windows are comprised of layered sheets of glass built with a construction technique uniquely developed for this car.

From behind the wheel, drivers will know they are driving a very special car. The aluminum trim panel that spans the double-brow instrument panel gets an axel spin finish different from other 2015 Mustangs, plus a special serialized 50 Year Limited Edition badge on the passenger side. Each badge will be individually etched at Flat Rock Assembly Plant where Mustang is built.

The limited-edition is the only 2015 Mustang with a cashmere-stitched, leath-er-wrapped steering wheel. The stitching is also used on the instrument panel, shifter boot, center armrest, door inserts and seats. The seats feature exclusive two-tone

cashmere and black leather upholstery, and the Mustang 50 Year logo on the seat backs.

Limited-edition cars will be equipped with loop-carpet floor mats with cashmere stitching and suede binding not available on other Mustangs.

Powered by the upgraded 5.0-liter V8 engine delivering more than 420 horsepower and 390 lb.-ft. of torque, every 50 Year Limited Edition will be equipped with the Mustang GT performance pack that includes massive six-piston Brembo front brakes and 19-inch alloy wheels with high-performance Y-speed-rated Pirelli P-Zero summer tires.

The 19-inch alloy wheels feature a unique Y-spoke design inspired by the chromed steel wheels that were offered on the original Mustang 50 years ago. The front wheels are 9.0 inches wide with 255/40R tires, while the staggered rear wheels are 9.5 inches wide with 275/40R tires.

The 50 Year Limited Edition is the only 2015 Mustang that will be avail-able with a combination of an automatic transmission and the performance pack. When equipped with the six-speed automatic transmission, the Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition will get a limited-slip rear differential with a 3.55:1 final-drive. Customers who opt for the six-speed manual will get a Torsen differential with a 3.73:1 final-drive ratio.

The 50 Year Limited Edition car will be among the first 2015 Mustangs built this year. Each of the 1,964 50 Year Limited Edition Mustangs will get a unique owner’s guide in a leather portfolio with the 50 Year badge on the outside.

“We wanted to provide our most dedicated fans with the emotion of the original Mustang in a 21st century car,” said Reineke. “With the 50 Year Limited Edition, I believe we have accomplished our goal.”

Celebrating theFORD MUSTANG

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Who Was Behind It?

But before Iacocca was a corporate celebrity — and, indeed, part of the reason he was able to find so much success in his career — is that he is widely known as the father of the Ford Mustang.

EARLY LIFEBorn to Italian immigrants

in Allentown, Pa., in 1924, Iacocca found a job with Ford by 1946 and quickly found success in the company’s sales and marketing efforts.

By 1960, he was promoted to vice-president of Ford’s car and truck groups, a role that would lead him to oversee the creation of a new car designed for younger buyers in the Baby Boom generation. That car would go on to become the Mustang.

While Iacocca championed the Mustang and was responsible for promoting and shepherding its initial development, the day-to-day design of it was overseen by a different man.

DONALD N. FREYDonald Frey was born with

engineering in his blood. His father was a metallurgist who designed the Model D tractor

for John Deere in the 1920s, so a career in engineering for Ford made perfect sense for the young Frey.

When developing the Mustang in a record amount of time — 18 months — Frey also implemented many ideas that cut production costs for the car and are still widely used in the car industry

today.By sharing most of its parts

with other mass-produced Ford models, the Fairlane and Falcon, the cost of engineering and tooling new parts would be eliminated. It also shortened the learning curve for workers on the assembly line and the people who would repair the

Mustang, since they were already familiar with its components.

Finally, the Mustang used a four-seater design instead of the two-seat layout like the Ford Thunderbird and many classic sports cars, making the Mustang practical enough to appeal to a much larger group

of buyers.By the time Iacocca, Frey

and the rest of the Mustang team had finished designing it, they thought they had a popular car on their hands.

Little did they know just how popular it would turn out to be.

Lee Iacocca became a household name in the 1980s as Chrysler’s very public CEO, turning the company around financially and personally pitching its cars on TV.

50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | LEADERS

Lee Iacocca and Don Frey are pictured with an early Mustang. These two men were instrumental in the Ford Mustang development program in the early 1960s.

50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | THE BEGINNING

The First MustangIt turns out the Mustang

sold 418,000 copies in the first year alone, breaking all kinds of sales records and wildly surpassing everyone’s expectations for the new car. That original 100,000 sales target was surpassed in just three months.

Why, exactly, was this particular car such a popular seller while other sporty American cars, like the Corvette and Thunderbird, never saw such widespread appeal?

FOR THE MASSESThe obvious answer is its

price. With a suggested retail price of just $2,368, virtually anyone could afford to buy it, whereas the more traditional, “purist” sports cars were far more expensive and less practical then the ‘Stang.

The Mustang was about more than a low price, though. Lots of cars have come with low price tags through history, but few resonated with the public as much as this Ford did when it was introduced.

FRESH STYLEGoing on sale in the

summer of 1964 — earning it a “1964 1/2” designation since it was unveiled in the middle of the year — the Mustang was an immediate hit with consumers because it offered so much style for the money.

At a time when the 1950s tail fins had grown out of style and boxy, square, slab-sided cars had become the norm, the Mustang looked like a lot more fun. It had a

two-door layout, sloping roofline and aggressive, muscular nose.

Many of those same styling cues would go on to set the look and tone for many of the muscle-cars to come as General Motors and Chrysler responded to the Mustang’s surprise success.

FUN PERFORMANCEWhile it might not sound

impressive by today’s

standards, the Mustang was a quick, enjoyable car to drive in 1964. Its base engine was a V6 that made 101 horsepower, but two V8 engines were where the real fun was at.

A 260-cubic-inch V8 made 164 horsepower, while a 289-cubic-inch V8 made 210 horses. And with a more nimble feel than most cars from the era, the new Mustang appealed to a huge number of drivers who wanted a sporty car.

When it first went on sale, the Ford Motor Company estimated just under 100,000 Mustangs would sell in the first year. But they were wrong.


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And in all the Mustang’s long and glorious racing his-tory, one name stands above the rest: Shelby.

A RACING ICONAs a racing driver, Carroll

Shelby would have been known for an exceptional career even if that was all he accomplished.

He set 16 speed records in the U.S. and internationally, drove for the Maserati and Aston Martin factory teams, was Sports Illustrated’s driv-er of the year for two years and even competed at the pinnacle of motor racing in Formula One.

After Shelby ended his rac-ing career because of health issues, though, he needed to find somewhere else to utilize his talents. And what he did changed the racing world — and the American car indus-try — for good.

FORD PARTNERSHIP

Shelby had a brilliant idea. He knew from his driving experience that lightweight, nimble British sports cars were quick around a race-track, but they could be even better with American-style

V8 power.He decided to combine the

two, cramming a Ford small-block V8 into a lightweight sports-car body built by AC in Great Britain. It was the start of a relationship that would make Shelby world famous and influence the direction of the Mustang for Ford.

SHELBY MUSTANGS

Shelby continued to work with Ford in the 1960s, help-ing with racing projects that

would put Ford cars on the world stage.

And his involvement with the Mustang would create some of today’s most desir-able collector cars: Shelby Mustangs.

Shelby used the same basic formula that made his AC Cobra successful in the first Mustang he modified, which became known as the GT350, or Mustang Cobra. With the ‘Stang’s lightweight body and a gigantic V8 engine that was tuned to make 306 horsepow-er, the limited-production

Cobra became legendary for its speed and excitement.

While the original Shelby Mustang Cobra was only built for five years, today its legacy lives on. It inspired countless other owners to modify their Mustangs for speed and, starting in 2007, the Shelby name returned to the Ford lineup.

Shelby died in May 2012, but his memory will remain in the hearts of American car lovers forever.

Today you can buy a Shelby GT500 that carries on his

dream of a quick, powerful monster of a car. It tops the Mustang lineup with a price around $55,000, but it also offers more speed per dollar than just about any other car on the market.

50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | SHELBY

The King of Cobras

Almost from the moment it was introduced, racers began taking the Mustang to the track. From drag strips to road racing, and even serving as the pace car for the 1964 Indianapolis 500, the ‘Stang was the perfect platform to modify for speed.

Carroll Shelby played a major role in Ford’s suc-cessful racing programs of the 1960s. He is shown here at the 24 Hours of LeMans in France in 1965.

Carroll Shelby stands with the 2007 Ford Shelby GT Mustang.


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50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | POPULARITY

Rabid Fan Base

People who own Mustangs, whether new or old ones, tend to form communities together, both online and in person. Whether your inter-est is in modifying your Mustang, restoring it, racing it or just babying it as your “toy,” there are plenty of other people who share your interest.

FAN CLUBSThe Ford Mustang has

more enthusiasts than any

other car on the planet. Its biggest fan club, the

Mustang Club of America, was founded in Georgia in 1978, and it’s grown to become one of the largest car clubs in the world.

Today it has many thou-sands of members and more than 170 local and regional groups, which means there is a local chapter in major cities all across America.

Although the Mustang

Club of America is centered around a car, it tries to encourage as much family involvement as possible. From car shows to local meet-ings and group drives, get-ting involved in a Mustang club offers camaraderie, advice and assistance for all kinds of Mustang owners.

CUSTOMIZINGAnother great thing about

the Mustang is that it’s rela-

tively easy to upgrade and customize for owners who have a bit of mechanical skill.

Aftermarket parts are plen-tiful for Mustangs of all ages. Whether you want to change the body styling, upgrade the power under the hood or cus-tomize the look of your interi-or, there are lots of people and companies that can make the job easy for you.

The Mustang can also make a great start for build-ing a race car if your hobbies include spending time on the track. From light, street-legal modifications to major chang-es designed for professional drivers, your ability to cus-tomize the Mustang is only limited to your skills and your budget.

When you buy a Ford Mustang, you’re not just buying a car. You’re buying access to an exclusive club of car owners who are just as passionate about their Mustang as you are.

Thousands of Ford Mustang fans — and nearly 6,000 classic Mustangs — gathered at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina in 1999 to salute the 35th birthday of the American icon.


THE NEW MUSTANG | OVERVIEW

2015 Mustang Unveiled

To create an all-new version of the Mustang — perhaps America’s most iconic and popular performance car — Ford’s designers and engineers had to balance respect for the Mustang’s heritage with changes that bring it into the modern age for 2015. The result is what you see here: a drastically different car that remains every inch a Mustang.

FOR A NEW WORLD

For better or worse, the previous generation Mustang is in many ways a relic from an earlier era. Its solid rear axle, heavyweight feel and muscle-car styling would have looked right at home in the 1960s.

The new generation Mustang changes that. While the look is still heavily influenced by the early Mustangs — a good thing, in my opinion — there are changes under the skin that make it a much more modern vehicle than its predecessor.

The Mustang’s old-school rear suspension design has finally been dumped in favor of an integral-link independent rear suspension, which should greatly improve the ride and handling. It also gets

some new electronic goodies such as adaptive cruise control and Ford’s Blind Spot Information System with cross-traffic alert.

Its cabin also looks like a nice improvement over the previous design, making more use of soft-touch materials, classy looking stitching and a prominent digital display that is neatly integrated with the dash layout.

As a whole, the changes to the Mustang make it a more up-to-date car without sacrificing the essence of what the ‘Stang has always been: a fun, stylish car for the masses and enthusiasts alike.

DESIGNFord’s designers seem to

have gotten the balancing act right on the new Mustang’s body. It’s got a completely new look with a sleeker, slipperier, cleaner shape

overall, but it’s still instantly recognizable as a Mustang at first glance.

To my eyes, the new Mustang looks slightly more like a sports car and slightly less like a muscle car. Its hood appears longer and lower, making it more evocative of the original Mustang that had a hint of European flair to its design.

Taken as an entire package, though, there’s nothing

European about it. It’s a very in-your-face design, one that’s classically American without being overly reliant on retro styling.

For a car that is turning 50 years old — making it one of the world’s longest cars in continuous production — it looks like it has a whole lot of life and excitement yet to come.

After 50 years and more than 9 million Mustangs sold, Ford faced one of the toughest questions in the automotive world: How do you redesign an icon?

ALL-NEW DESIGN PAYS TRIBUTE TO HERITAGE, MOVES TO NEW HEIGHTSBy Derek Price

Green Shoot Media

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50 YEARS OF THE MUSTANG | NEW DESIGN

Muscle Car Reborn

In fact, there was a time it nearly died off.

As the automotive market has shifted through the decades, Ford has experimented with changing the definition of what it means to drive a Mustang.

When it strayed from the original formula — power, style and affordability — is when the problems set in.

CHALLENGESBy the late 1960s, the

Mustang actually had some competition, particularly from Chevrolet’s Camaro.

It continued to evolve through the early 1970s, remaining a hot seller in the

muscle-car era, until it confronted its biggest hurdle to date: the 1973 oil embargo.

The Mustang had built its early success on the availability of cheap gasoline. But as gas prices rose and reached a crisis in 1973, a heavy, fuel-hungry Mustang no longer made sense.

Ford responded to higher gas prices by introducing a smaller, more efficient Mustang called the Mustang II in 1973. Even though it was smaller than the 1972 Mustang, though, it was still heavier thanks to new emissions and safety equipment.

At the same time, new Japanese and European competitors started pouring into the U.S. market in the late 1970s and early 1980s, offering better gas mileage than the Pinto-based Mustang could achieve.

By the late 1980s, Ford had all but abandoned the original Mustang’s formula. Engineers were working on a f r o n t - w h e e l - d r i v e replacement for the Mustang to be based on the Mazda MX-6, without a V8 as an option.

It would have been the end of the Mustang as it had always been known.

BACK TO ROOTSFortunately for Mustang

purists, the Mazda-based design was never used as originally planned.

There was so much outrage over a V6 powered, Japanese-designed Mustang that the idea was scrapped, and the Mazda-based car became the Ford Probe.

Instead, Ford decided to take a risk. It would redesign the Mustang for 1994 with the same attributes as the original car. It had an aggressive, all-American body that mimicked the original ‘Stang. It had rear-wheel drive. And yes, it was still available with a V8 engine.

Ford had resurrected the original Mustang in a modern form, and it would go on to become a sales success once again. Today’s Mustang remains popular in large part because of this return to its original roots.

Despite its incredible popularity and sales numbers in the early years, the Mustang’s history hasn’t always been filled with success.

A Ford Mustang GT from 1994 shows how the Mustang returned to its muscle-car roots.

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